Mini Tour
The Peak to Peak Byway
"No nation has ever fallen for having too much scenery"
-Enos Mills, 1917
The name of Colorado's earliest scenic byway can be a little confusing to the first-time visitor. The northern end of the route is visibly dominated by Longs Peak. But what about the other end, nestled among the casinos of Black Hawk? Where's the other peak?
The answer lies in history. The route was originally intended to run from Longs Peak to Pikes Peak. Work started from the northern end—and in a turn of events that modern visitors might call prophetic, the builders eventually reached Black Hawk and found they had no money left.
The result, designated a scenic byway in 1918, is a short, sweet route of only 55 miles which can be driven in an hour and a half without stops. Linger at a few of the following attractions and it's still an easy day trip from almost anywhere on the Front Range.
Gold in Them Thar Hills
Ever heard of Mountain City? You won't find it on a map of the state, but it existed before Colorado did. Mountain City was the boomtown that sprang up around the gold strike at Gregory's Gulch in 1859—the impetus for the Gold Rush to what would become Colorado. As it grew, Mountain City separated into three distinct towns: Nevadaville where the ore was mined, Black Hawk where it was milled, and Central City as the commercial district.
Today, Nevadaville is nearly a ghost town, but its siblings are booming with new fortune hunters. Black Hawk has the mega-casinos, while Central City's gaming saloons and historic opera house crowd along narrow, winding, hilly streets with a more authentic flavor.
The best way to get an overview of the area—especially since Central City's tiny streets can be maddening to navigate on a first visit—is to park your car and hop aboard the BH & CC Tramway, a free bus that runs a constant loop route around both towns. While it isn't a tour, the drivers are knowledgeable and generally happy to answer questions.
Golden Gate Canyon State Park
Heading north from Black Hawk, the byway winds through hills and valleys scattered with old mining ruins and equipment. Between here and the former railroad hub of Rollinsville, you'll pass a couple of entry points for Golden Gate Canyon State Park.
Winter activities in the park include ice fishing, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. Good sledding hills can be found at the visitors center and above Kriley Pond.
Chillin' with the Frozen Dead Guy
Many mountain towns mark the end of winter with homegrown festivals—a chance to have some fun and shake out the craziness that can set in after months of cold weather. In Nederland, home of the wildly popular Frozen Dead Guy Days, there's craziness to spare. Last year 13,000 people turned up to help the town celebrate its most solid citizen—the late Bredo Morstoel, who died in his native Norway in 1989 and now resides in a crate of dry ice in a garden shed in this small former mining community.
Morstoel's grandson Trygve Bauge intended to start a cryonic storage facility in Nederland, but neglected to inform the authorities of two important facts: one, that he was starting a cryonic storage facility in Nederland, and two, that he was in the USA at all.
Grandpa Bredo first came to public attention when Trygve and his mother, Aud, were deported and she mentioned that she didn't know who would look after the bodies. (The pair's other icy client was later removed for burial, but, for all sorts of complicated reasons, Grandpa's remains remain.)
After the shock wore off, locals decided that if you must live in a town that's famous for having a frozen dead guy in a garden shed, you might as well enjoy it. This year, Frozen Dead Guy Days are held from March 7-9. Events range from coffin races and Grandpa lookalike contests to frozen salmon tossing, a Vindaloo-eating contest and a polar plunge. Meanwhile, from Norway, Trygve pays a regular sum to a Longmont resident to keep the old man iced-up and presumably happy.
In summer, a good side trip in the Nederland area is the ghost town of Caribou, approximately five miles west of Nederland on unpaved County Road 128. The ruins of two stone buildings mark this former silver-mining center. On the way you'll pass the site of a more recent ghost—the Caribou Ranch recording studio, where stars from Elton John to Frank Zappa recorded singles and albums during the 1970s. The studio closed in 1985 and the land is now a park administered by Boulder County.
Men, meteors and mountains
From Nederland to the end of the byway in Estes Park, the scenery becomes more varied with the passing miles, as the Indian Peaks Wilderness to the west is gradually overshadowed by Mt. Meeker and massive Longs Peak.
After passing through Allenspark, you'll come across a roadside photo opportunity that's outstanding at any time of year. A falling meteor led Monsignor Joseph Bosetti to this location in 1916. Though he never found the meteorite, the surroundings were so inspiring that he vowed to build a church there. The "Chapel on the Rock" (its official name is St. Catherine of Siena Chapel) was built in the 1930s, in a setting that almost defines artistic perfection. The chapel is part of Camp St. Malo, a Catholic retreat and conference center.
On this part of the byway, impressive views are revealed around every bend. Longs Peak seems big enough to weigh down the world. Pause a while to contemplate a man who climbed it more than 300 times, a towering figure in conservation history: Enos Mills.
Mills came to Colorado in 1884 to improve his health. Traveling alone from Kansas, taking jobs to pay his way, he found his destiny in the Rockies and spent two years working in Estes Park while building his own homestead cabin. By the time the cabin was finished, he was 15 years old.
When he died in 1922 at age 52, Mills had written 16 books, laid the foundations of modern interpretive guiding and been hailed as the father of Rocky Mountain National Park—instrumental in the creation of the National Park Service itself. His cabin, now part of a museum, is located on the byway a few miles north of Camp St. Malo. It's open limited hours in summer, and by prior arrangement in winter.
Estes Park
As the Peak to Peak Byway passes Lily Lake and begins its descent into Estes Park, the scenery is refreshingly different for those who have only taken the main route through this town. The byway ends at the busy intersection of St. Vrain Ave. and Highway 34, with the historic Stanley Hotel on the hill just ahead.
It's fitting to end your tour here, at the place where the byway was first conceived. Enos Mills wasn't the only one who came to Colorado for his health. F. O. Stanley, a tuberculosis patient who found relief in the mountain air, was another key figure in the early Colorado tourist trade. And, as the inventor of the "Stanley Steamer" steam-car in 1903, he backed the development of scenic auto routes. The Peak to Peak Byway is one of his legacies.
Stanley may have envisaged a future golden age when happy visitors would chug along a scenic road from Longs Peak to Pikes Peak, in the gilded comfort of their puffing steam-powered Stanleymobiles. If so, he didn't get it quite right—and he surely never imagined anything like Frozen Dead Guy Days—but the "scenic road" part of the dream is here on the byway.
And so are the happy visitors.
Carrie Patrick is editor of EnCompass.
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